Young Women and Fire
by Anti-Social-Turtle
Summary: My version of 'Young men and fire" from Alex's POV if she had been there.


Disclaimer: THEY ARENT MINE! Ok? =D  
  
A/N: ok, I've had this idea in my head for quite a while since they killed Alex off, ~curses at John Wells~, but anyway... for the purpose of this story, Alex has been on from the beginning, and her and Ty are together! (pssst~ this is for Ella to make her feel better, and all my other TW friends.)  
  
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"What the hell?" I whispered, doubting Jimmy could've even heard me over this guys ranting and raving.  
  
"Back up sir, get on the other side of the street!" Jimmy was yelling at the asshole who decided to barge into the middle of a garage fire. He was standing there, just going on and on about how he's a fireman, and its too dangerous. Well in case he didn't notice, so were we, and I think we would know from dangerous. This guy was it.  
  
"It's too dangerous! Get back!" I just got the sudden urge to hit this guy over the head. If he would just move, we could put out the damn fire.  
  
Jimmy was slowly making his way towards him when, out of nowhere, he pulls out a gun.  
  
"Oh my god," I heard myself say it, but I hardly knew why. The glint of the sun off the metal shaft of the gun made me turn my head, and in that instant, I knew it was the worse thing I could have done.  
  
"I said GET BACK!" he said a final time; those were the last words spoken for a while. A solid five minutes of gunfire at least, was all I heard. That's what it seemed like.  
  
I didn't even realize I was on the ground until the guy stopped firing. That's when Jimmy's body slackened against mine; he had been protecting me. He had pushed me to the ground, and if it weren't for the fact that I was scared shitless, I might have been mad at him.  
  
I slowly pushed Jimmy off of me, and gazed around in complete shock. It was chaos, they had lost control of the fire hose, and the discharged water was all over my hands. That, and blood, but it wasn't mine.  
  
"Jimmy?" I expected an answer, but all I heard was his labored attempts to breathe.  
  
"Jimmy?" I crawled closer to him, he was conscious. It took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on. I saw the gun to the left of me, Jimmy on the ground to the right, my blood-stained hands, but I didn't see any blood on him, at least not yet.  
  
He was propped up on his right side, separated from the ground by the oxygen tanks that adorned his back. The usually life saving tanks had him situated in such a way that I didn't see the quickly forming pool of blood until I had him lying flat on his back.  
  
"Jimmy talk to me!" I asked of him, forgetting about my urge to call for help. From what I saw, others were injured and I was sure someone had already called for back up.  
  
"Alex...?" he spoke the almost inaudible question, closing his eyes in a pained face. I opened my mouth to reassure him that it was me, that I was all right. Before I had a chance, his head lolled to the side and his face relaxed.  
  
"Jimmy!? No, Jimmy, wake the hell up!" I spoke in a panic, pushing my pointer and middle finger to his neck. The slow movement under his skin distracted me from seeing Carlos come up behind me.  
  
"How long has he been out?" he finally spoke. I was still in shock, and just watched as Carlos finally got Jimmy's jacket off and pushed his knuckles into his chest; there was no response.  
  
"Alex are you ok?" Doc asked coming up next to Carlos with a backboard and his bag. I somehow managed a nod.  
  
As they slowly rolled him on to the backboard, the gunshot wounds finally came into my view, two small holes in the right side of his stomach, up near the base of the rib cage. This was bad.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Pressure's down to 80/50 and dropping!" Bobby yelled out. I was just sitting there, watching this scene play out in the ambulance. It wasn't the usual clockwork; the only one keeping Kim sane was Bobby. She was a wreck, and I was just plain...catatonic.  
  
By the time we got to the hospital I was finally able to form verbal responses to questions, and able to hold myself upright.  
  
"GSW to the upper right quadrant, another to the chest," I helped Bobby, Kim, and Walsh pull Jimmy's gurney into the trauma room, "heart rate's 68, pressure's 70 palp, pulse ox is down to 90!"  
  
"Pull his files, do you know if he's allergic to anything?" Proctor's words were drowned out by the alarming noise of machines in the room, as was Kim's answer. Then we were ushered outside.  
  
"Is he gunna be OK?" I was able to hear those words, the question posed by Walsh; and I dreaded the answer.  
  
"Jimmy's a tough son of a bitch," he said, putting his arm on Kim's shoulder and helping her to chairs. That wasn't an answer; that was just a passive way to get out of telling the truth.  
  
The guys behind me eventually left, joining Bobby and Kim. I knew I should have gone too, but I just didn't have the heart to leave. I kept my nose pressed against the little window to the side of the room. I didn't have a clear view of Jimmy anymore- with all the doctors and nurses crowding around him- but I felt that sense of security. As long as I was standing there he'd be ok, right? Yeah, sure...  
  
"C'mon Alex," I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder, and for the first time I realized that no one was in the trauma room anymore, they'd taken him to surgery already, "he'll be all right."  
  
Ty, it was Ty. I fell into his arms and just stood there, as long he was there I would be ok, right? Right!  
  
"D-did you find him? The guy?" The words were mine, but the voice was unfamiliar. Ty just nodded, feeling no need to go into the details. He sat me down, right outside the room, and we waited. Hand in hand.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Somewhere along the line we had found our way to the waiting room. Ty had asked Sully to get reassigned for the rest of the shift so he could stay with me; take me home later. Though I doubt I could leave until I knew he was ok, he had to be ok.  
  
Kim and Bobby were talking, she had told me earlier that day about her ...uh, she called it a "run in" with Jimmy the night before. Yeah, she can't just say she slept with him. I mean come on; it wasn't like it was an accidental thing.  
  
I heard the soft sound of sneakers on the tile floor behind me and lifted my head off Ty's shoulder. Turned my neck to see the doctor talking to Kim, with a less than happy face. I was able to make out what he was telling her, and I didn't like it.  
  
"Well, he's out of surgery and stable," the doctors always start off with the good news, to cushion the blow, "We found a laceration to his liver, and some other soft tissue damage, which we were able to repair. But," and there was always a 'but', "one of the bullets pierced his diaphragm and went into his chest cavity." The doctor stopped to take a breath and let it sink in.  
  
I was on the verge of tears, and Ty knew it. He put his arm back around my waist, and kissed my forehead. I never got why guys did that. I always thought it was an insult, like a man having to look down on a woman. But then I saw it as a form of comfort, and kissed him back, and waited for the doctor to continue.  
  
"So we'll have to keep him on the ventilator until he regains consciousness. You can go back in recovery and see him now, for a few minutes until they get him a bed upstairs." The doctor finished nodding and walked away.  
  
I stood up and gently nudged Ty's comforting arm off my back. He stood up to follow me, but I gestured for him to sit down. He did.  
  
I walked out into the hall on wobbly legs and saw Kim leaning against the wall, with her back to me. I walked a little closer before whispering, "Kim?"  
  
She turned around and seemed to be looking past me before her gaze fell to the floor. It was obvious she was either scared, or too upset to go any further; and it was probably both.  
  
"Come on Kim," I reached out my hand and took her and helped her to Jimmy's recovery room. I'm not sure what possessed me to do that, I mean Kim was much closer to Jimmy then I was. Then I would ever be. They had been married, had a child together, and now he was lying in a hospital bed inches from death.  
  
It could've been me.  
  
That thought scared me. It scared the shit out of me. Jimmy saved my live today, he paid for it with two bullets in him, and I was standing here keeping Kim from having an emotional break down. He saved my life.  
  
I stood in the doorway, still within view of Jimmy's bed. Kim was standing next to me, shaking like hell, staring at Jimmy lying lifeless on the hospital bed. "Kim, it's okay. He's going to be okay." I looked at her trembling figure, and gave her and a firm squeeze. "It's okay, Kim. Go on." I edged Kim into the room where she walked up to his bed and began crying. As much as I wanted to be there, for both of them, I knew that Kim needed to be alone with Jimmy at that point, so I left to go back and sit with Ty.  
  
Ty was remained seated as I came up behind him, right where I had left him, "Hey, how's Kim holding up?" He spoke slow, tired words.  
  
"She's gunna be okay. I hope." I answered and sat down in the chair next to him. "I'm really scared, Ty. I mean, what if. . . What if he - "  
  
Ty pulled his arm around me, pulling me against his chest, before I could finish my sentence. I think that wasn't such a bad thing, knowing that the end of that sentence wasn't going to be an optimistic one.  
  
"He'll be okay Alex, you just have to keep thinking that way. If you don't, you'll drive yourself crazy." We were still in the embrace, and I was really trying not to cry. I hate crying, never seemed to figure out what good it did anybody. But despite my efforts not to, the tears just wouldn't stay back.  
  
"Ty?" I lifted my head up from his chest, wiping at the tears that wouldn't stop rolling down my face. "Ty, it could have been me. . . He could have hit me and not Jimmy."  
  
"Alex-" Ty tried to interject.  
  
"No, Ty, listen. If it weren't for Jimmy, I could be lying in that bed right now, I could be in critical condition. . . I should be lying in that bed now, not him."  
  
"Alex, he knew what he was doing. He knew the consequence of trying to protect you, and he made the decision anyway. That's just the kind of person he is. That's what he does, he protects people he cares about." I knew Ty was right, but I still couldn't help but feel guilty for him being there in the hospital, "and I'm glad that he did." He finished  
  
How did Kim not blame me? How was I the only person who saw that if I had not been there, Jimmy wouldn't have tried to protect me, and he wouldn't have gotten hurt?  
  
"He's one crazy son of a bitch. . . Remind me to thank him, ok?" I gripped t hand tighter and began to drift to sleep.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
~finisce~  
  
ok I had a sudden urge to write this, so go figure. I have to give a BIG thanks to PagingDrElla, she basically wrote the last few paragraphs of dialogue. And a thanks to ThDrkNessBnthe(or what ever your SN is Brett.) for being my Beta!  
  
READ AND REVIEW PPLZ! 


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